Bike share program rides in at Simpson

Simpson College’s bike share program is ready to ride, with the bikes in and the library staff is ready to help. The Simpson community can now check out bikes to use around campus.

The Sustainability Club has been working all year to revamp Simpson’s bike share program. Matt Turnley, the president of Sustainability Club, is proud of the work they have put in and thinks it will make Simpson up to par with other colleges in the area.

“We saw it as a big potential improvement on campus,” Turnley said.

This program is running again after the previous bike share program ended in 2017.

“Other campuses around the conference and around the area have similar programs put into place. We were hoping to catch up to them and put in a program that could be used for years to come.”

Turnley thinks with the amount of research that was put into the program and the agreement they have made with Bike World, this reiteration of the bike share program could be the last one needed.

“We did a lot of background work to make sure that this program was more concrete, that this was the final program put into place,” Turnley said. “So, we looked at various retailers in the area to see what bike would work best for a school like us, what bikes were reasonably priced and what long term maintenances programs we could find.”

The bikes will be able to be checked out from the library with a school ID. Before riding, one must sign a bike waiver saying the school is not legally responsible for any injuries that may occur while riding the bike.

Students can give their school ID to an individual at the information desk and the rider will receive a lanyard with a key to the bike lock. The bikes can be checked out for two hours and the rider will lock the bike up and return the key to receive their ID.

Riders are encouraged to wear their own helmets for health and safety reasons. Simpson will not be providing them.

Cyd Dyer, Simpson College librarian, was the first one to express real interest in a bike share program. Progress did not happen, nor did the bike share program.

A student employee for Simpson Security shared an interest in creating one in 2012, but the process did not go beyond initial planning.

The first bike share program was developed in 2014. There were some issues with the program though. “The downfall to the program was that bikes became disabled very quickly and no one could check out the bikes either because the tires were flat, the chain came off or whatever,” Dyer said.

The 24-hour check out time was deemed a big issue with the old bike share program and was thought to be the cause of some of the bikes becoming disabled very quickly. Sustainability Club and Dyer are hopeful with the new two hour check out period those issues will be solved.